...We are well aware of the challenges that the modernization of refineries represent in terms of investments. But we would like to draw your attention to the fact that our report focuses on the African fuel imports. Here improvements can and should happen quickly. Every single cargo of European instead of “African Quality” would contribute to cleaner air and healthier lungs. As dominant players in this import business, the commodity traders have a crucial and complementing role in solving this problem. Your third point suggests that clean fuels only make sense when introduced together with cleaner cars. Low-sulfur fuels are the first step and, in fact, a precondition for allowing advanced vehicle technology to work and it already can reduce PM emissions by 50% when switching from 2000 ppm sulfur fuels to 10 ppm, according to the ICCT and UNEP (see fig. 3.4, p. 24). But yes, the second step, the introduction of cleaner cars has to follow as soon as possible to further reduce emissions. Currently even cars that already are equipped with some emissions control technologies, as also second-hand cars increasingly have them, immediately emit much more pollutants as soon as they are burning high sulfur fuels...